Читать книгу The Notebook - José Saramago - Страница 42

This afternoon I heard mention of José Luis Sampedro, an economist, a writer, and above all a wise man, with the sagacity that doesn’t come with age (though age can help a little) but from reflection as a way of life. He was asked on television about the crisis of ’29, which he experienced as a child and which he subsequently studied as an academic. He gave intelligent answers, which anyone interested in understanding what is going on will find in his books (he has written so much, José Luis Sampedro), or by seeking out his journalism on the Web, but there was one question that he himself—rather than the interviewer—asked, and which remained engraved in my memory. The master asked us, and himself, how to explain why the money used to rescue the banks appeared so quickly and was given unconditionally, and whether this money would have appeared with the same speed had it been solicited to help with an emergency in Africa, or to fight AIDS. . . It did not take us long to guess the answer. The economy we can save, but not the human being, who should take absolute priority, whoever and wherever he or she may be. José Luis Sampedro is a great humanist as well as an exemplar of lucidity. Contrary to what is sometimes said, the world is not completely lacking in deserving people like him, so we should pay him careful attention. And do what he tells us: intervene, intervene, intervene.